China is satisfied that US Internet giant Google Inc is complying with Chinese laws after it tweaked the way it directs users to an unfiltered search page, a senior official said yesterday.
The comments from a Ministry of Industry and Information Technology official largely echoed previous Chinese statements, but are still likely to be seen as good news for the company as Beijing has been coy about its long-term future in China.
Google is trying to achieve the delicate balance of ending self-censorship of searches, while holding onto its business foothold in a country where control of information has been key to ensuring the Communist Party’s decades in power.
Google’s market share in China continued to slip in the second quarter, falling to 27.3 percent from 29.5 percent in the first, according to data from research firm iResearch.
Guxiang, a company that operates Google’s Web sites in China, had committed to “abide by Chinese law,” and ensure the company did not provide illegal content, said Zhang Feng (張峰), head of the ministry’s communication development division.
“After examination, we have concluded that it has basically met the requirements according to the relevant laws and regulations,” Zhang told a news conference.
Google unexpectedly warned in January it might quit China over censorship concerns and after suffering a hacker attack it said came from within the country, but eventually terminated its Google.cn search service and started rerouting users to its unfiltered Hong Kong site.
Early this month, the company ended automatic redirection, saying Beijing was unhappy about the system and would not renew Google’s operating license if it continued.
Visitors are now invited to click through to the Hong Kong page instead of being sent straight there.
China’s firewall remains in place however, meaning most sensitive sites turned up on searches are inaccessible from within the country’s borders.
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